
Magdalena Landa-Posas
Host: Colorado Legal Services
Sponsor: The Morrison & Foerster Foundation
Current Fellow
Ashleigh’s project helps DOVE expand its current services to include immigration and criminal record relief for human trafficking victims in the South Shore, Massachusetts community.
Human trafficking is one of the most endemic crimes of our time, yet our legal system has only recently begun to address it. In Massachusetts, trafficking was not codified as a crime until 2011 – making it one of the last states in the country to do so – and there remains a lack of knowledge throughout the state about the ability to serve victims through the legal system. The National Survivor Network released results of a 2016 survey indicating over 90% of trafficking victims are arrested at some point during their trafficking experience and over half believe that 100% of the following convictions were a direct result of their being a victim of trafficking. Further, abuse of the legal process is one of the most common tactics traffickers use to coerce their victims into compliance, and in the labor trafficking context, this generally includes: confiscating legal documents, causing victims to overstay their visas, bringing them over to the U.S. on false work terms, and so when victims escape they are left incredibly vulnerable to U.S. immigration laws.
Ashleigh is excited about the potential DOVE has to transform the anti-trafficking landscape in Massachusetts by providing Massachusetts trafficking victims with the services they need to break free of chains their traffickers have placed upon them and move forward with their healing process.
During the first year of the Fellowship, Ashleigh has:
In the next year, Ashleigh plans to:
Preventing Human Trafficking Through Systems Reformation
Host: Colorado Legal Services
Sponsor: The Morrison & Foerster Foundation
Current Fellow
Host: Bread for the City
Sponsor: Crowell & Moring Foundation
Current Fellow
Host: ALDEA - The People's Justice Center
Sponsor: Greenberg Traurig, LLP
Current Fellow
Host: Coast to Coast Legal Aid of South Florida, Inc
Sponsor: The Florida Bar Foundation